2018 weather stats prove it was a pretty good year

Sunday 06 January 2019

The year 2018 may be starting to feel like a dim and distant memory but some weather statistics have been published to ensure we remember it as a good one, with plenty of sunny days, although it was pretty wet at times too.

Guernsey Met Office's annual data has shown that 2018 was in fact the 6th warmest year on record, with statistics kept from 1843 onwards.

The temperature and rainfall records can be traced all the way back to then, while the number of hours of sunshine recorded in Guernsey was only written down regularly from 1894.

Pictured: The 2018 weather data collated by Guernsey Met. 

With 2016 hours of sunshine during the last 12 months, 2018 beat the 30 year average for sunshine by some way. That 30 year average is just 1867.9 hours.

The dullest year on record was not so long ago, in 1981, when just 1532.5 hours of sunshine were recorded throughout the year. The sunniest year ever, so far, in Guernsey was 1959 when 2262.8 hours of sunshine were recorded.

The average temperature for 2018 also beat the 30 year average - that is 11.4c compared to 12.1c over the last 12 months. The warmest day in 2018 was 8 July when the mercury rose to 28.1c.

2018 wasn't far off the warmest year ever recorded in Guernsey. The average in 2018 of 12.1c was just below the height of 12.4c recorded just four years ago.

The coldest year recorded was in 1879 when  the average temperature was just 8.7c.

In terms of rainfall - there was a total of 719.5mm of water, less than the 30 year average of 839.1mm. The wettest year on record saw 1447.3mm of rainfall in 1872 compared to 1921 which was the driest year on record with 448.7mm of rainfall recorded.

Pictured: The Guernsey Met Office publishes monthly and annual statistics monitoring the island's weather. 

December was 'milder, drier and had less sun' than average according to the monthly statistics released.

Pictured top: Cobo Bay saw plenty of sunny days during 2018.